View full sizeStaten Island Advance/Michael OatesThomas Scala leaves the 120th Precinct Stationhouse in St. George following his arrest last year.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A New Dorp Beach man who fatally struck his wife because she wouldn't pay to get cable TV in his hospital room, has pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide.

Prosecutors said Thomas Scala, 58, hit Blanche Scala in the head during an argument in their home after his release from the hospital.

While the blow didn't seem lethal at the time - Mrs Scala wasn't knocked out and went to bed that night - it opened a pre-existing internal wound that proved fatal to the 59-year-old victim the next day.

Scala, who has a history of health problems, will avoid jail under the plea; he'll be sentenced to five years' probation, said prosecutors.

"The defendant's guilty plea to the top charge against him brings some closure to a grueling ordeal for Blanche Scala's family," said Peter N. Spencer, spokesman for District Attorney Daniel Donovan. "The finality of the plea spares the family the emotional anguish of giving and hearing testimony about their loved one's death, and satisfies both their and our main concern that the 58-year-old defendant acknowledge responsibility for his role in that death."

The victim's sister, Gloria Sellitto, today expressed satisfaction with the plea. She said prosecutors and police "did a wonderful job."

"I'm happy with it. He admitted being responsible for her death," said Ms. Sellitto, in a telephone interview. "It's [also] bittersweet. We wish he would've had jail time, [but] we knew if he went to trial he could have been convicted of a lesser charge. To me, he's a coward."

An autopsy determined Blanche Scala, 59, died Nov. 27, 2010, of a brain hemorrhage due to blunt-impact injuries to the head, the city medical examiner's office said. Her death was classified as a homicide.

The day before her death, Scala attacked his wife during an argument in the couple's Finley Avenue residence, court records stated.

Scala, who suffers from a series of illnesses, including diabetes, had been released that day from Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze.

A law enforcement source said Scala had become enraged that his wife had failed to visit him on Thanksgiving, Nov. 25. Also, the source said, she wouldn't pay for him to get cable TV in his hospital room.

The blow Scala struck on Nov. 26 to his wife's head caused a pre-existing injury to re-bleed, resulting in her death the next day, prosecutors said. The hematoma wasn't visible until after an autopsy had been conducted, a law enforcement source said.

At one point during the episode, the victim packed her clothes in a shopping cart and said she was leaving. That statement spurred Scala to douse the garments with rubbing alcohol and hairspray, and set them ablaze, authorities allege.

Neighbors have said the couple had a history of quarreling, both inside and outside their home.

Scala is slated to be sentenced May 17 in state Supreme Court. St. George.

"This was an extremely sad case for all concerned," said Mark J. Fonte, Scala's St. George based lawyer. "There are no winners here. The defendant is happy he will not be going to jail."